HYPE AERT: Each year Milton Griepp presents his ICv2 Conference the day before New York Comic-Con, including his White Paper on the State of the Industry and a series of panels exploring trends and issues in the industry. (And The Beat is a sponsor, hence the hype tag.) This year’s sessions have just been announced and here are the preliminary participants; more wil be announced =in the coming weeks. The conference will be held Wednesday, October 9th from 1:00-6:00 pm.

Skybound (The Walking Dead) Director of Business Development Shawn Kirkham, Bonfire Agency co-founder Steve Rotterdam, Rob Salkowitz, author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, and Midtown Comics co-owner Gerry Gladston will explore what the #1 pop culture trend, the rise of geek culture, means for the future of entertainment, marketing, and the narratives that are weaving themselves through American life and beyond, moderated by ICv2’s Milton Griepp and with an introductory presentation by Bonfire Agency co-founder Ed Catto.

IDW Publishing President and COO Greg Goldstein, author and consultant Barry Nalebuff, and Rich Johnson of Penguin’s InkLit graphic novel line will discuss how a wider range of content, the impact of digital distribution, and the rapidly changing landscape at retail and in libraries can work together to reach a bigger, broader market for graphic novels, in a panel discussion moderated by Calvin Reid of Publisher’s Weekly.

John Roberts, co-founder of comiXology, Dan Manser, Director of Marketing for Diamond Comic Distributors, and creators Simon Fraser (ACT-I-VATE) and successful Kickstarter publisher Jamal Igle will discuss how the path from comic creators to consumer is being disrupted by Webcomics and digital sales, Kickstarter, and closer relationships between creators and their fans and what that means for the future, in a panel discussion moderated by Heidi MacDonald of The Beat.

ICv2 CEO Milton Griepp will also present the ICv2 White Paper, assembling the statistics and trends underlying the graphic novel and comics markets.

Registration information is available here. The event is open to press with an RSVP to Mgriepp@icv2.com. For more details on the event,

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.